Definições: convergência na construção de tesauros e ontologias

Abstract

In the scope of Information Science, definitions are essential in the creation of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) of the thesaurus and ontology type, offering a semantic understanding about a term. Each term carries the meaning of a concept and a well elaborated definition allows to establish the place of the term in the hierarchical structure of these instruments and the relations that they have with other terms. This article presents real examples of defining terms in realistic applied thesauri and ontologies, confronting the results of two doctoral researches. For this, it applies the descriptive and qualitative correlational methodology. In this course, it describes the inputs of both researches and discusses the importance of defining terms in thesauri and ontologies. Then, it analyzes the process of constructing definitive statements in the two instruments. In the analysis of the results, it show the existence of convergences and divergences in the elements that make up the two statements. The discussions and reflections carried out in this article show the existence of similarity between the definitions statements in the two instruments. In the same way, the differences are clear, especially with regard to the level of formalization and the different purposes of thesauri and ontologies. It is believed that this study will contribute to a better understanding about the creation of definitions and to help the information professional in his practical needs, because it presents the methodological elements and procedures that have been applied in its elaboration.